Turbine components such as airfoils experience extreme stresses during operation. Some of those stresses include increased pressure and temperature which may be concentrated on specific areas of the turbine component. One specific area is under the suction side leading edge tip shroud fillet of an airfoil, where increased stress may lead to a creep rupture or cracking
Stresses of this type can lead to early removal, discard and replacement of the expensive airfoil. This reduces the expected operational lifetime of the airfoil, increasing maintenance costs and operational costs of a system.
One modification method includes weld build ups over an increased stress area, followed by machining The weld build ups reduce material properties and increase the risk of stressing additional areas at the weld interface with the blade and in the weld metal. Additionally, current modification processes do not sufficiently increase material properties of the increased stress areas of the airfoil to provide a usable modified article.
A modification process to remove increased stress areas and increase material properties, as well as a modified article that do not suffer from one or more of the above drawbacks would be desirable in the art.